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Tuesday, 22 July 2014

Paper Only - The Papered Parlour welcomes you

Paper Only

By The Papered Parlour

Pavilion, August 2014

Paperback, £16.99

ISBN 978 190 844 9511

Star rating: *** 1/2

The Papered Parlour is a celebrated craft workshop/studio
space in Clapham, South London.It was
founded by Claire Heafford and Louise Hall in 2009. This very likable new book
aims to bottle the magic of their influential design venue, a boho hive of
crafty activity. The aim is to inspire the reader to find their creative mojo
by sharing the Papered Parlour mindset. The book contains 20 do-able projects
to direct the creative journey.

The book successfully conveys the mood of the venue – it
radiates a joyous creative warmth. The book’s centrefold is a photographic
portrait of the studio in full swing – a wallpaper-printing session. In another
craft book, a fold-out like this might be considered filler – but here it is
intrinsic to the nature of the book. “Welcome to the studio – please do come in.”

“Just do it” is the Papered Parlour’s mantra. Learn from
your mistakes and don’t worry about the mess. As the book points out, “Happy
accidents are the source of innovation”.

Paper Only is not
so much a project book as a pep talk on how to kick-start your creativity. The
actual projects are a mixed bag. Paper projects, are, of course, ideal for the
beginner, paper being easy to work with (and relatively inexpensive). The
Origami Bow and the loopy Star Bow are winners (can’t wait to try). Some of the
projects are a little bit too easy and obvious – like the gift tags made from
recycled maps and the paper envelopes.
(I guess the idea is that an easy initial success is encouraging for a newbie.)

The section on pattern design is very strong and is an
excellent introduction for the beginner. Here, the book comes into its own. TheGeometricPattern Generator is a
fun and useful exercise involving re-arranging paper cut-outs.How-tos are given for both block-printing and
screen-printing. The achievable goal: to print a length of wallpaper on lining
paper. Screen-printing is usually associated
with fabric-printing. It is good to see it treated as a papercraft.

This title would make a good gift for someone who is
thinking about learning a craft, and wants to dip a toe into the water.

The Papered Parlour is
the home to 24 creative practitioners, and it also hosts a public programme of
workshops, talks and events.